“The Showalter Fountain”
Tracy: “Has anybody heard the legend about a virgin graduating and the fish in the fountain swimming around?
Mike: “No, but I have heard about it being more than the four that is around the fountain and one was stolen?
Tracy: “Tell me a little bit about it. I’ve never heard this one.”
Mike: “Well you know about the basketball coach Bobby Knight and him getting fired? It was said when he left one or some of the students got so mad they came and stole one of the fish in his honor. So it used to be five fish and now it is four. It was kind of like a riot type of thing. Someone wants to get back at someone else for taking away something important to them, in this case Bobby as coach so someone else takes something of importance from someone else, the fish.”
Tracy: “Where and when did you hear this story?”
Mike: “It was probably a couple of weeks after Bobby got fired.”
Tracy: “Do you know the person that stole it?”
Mike: “No, I’ve heard no one ever found out who did it but they are sure that one is missing, but that is all I know about the fountain.”
A part of the texture of this example of folklore that I find really interesting is that the interviewer was not looking for this answer. Tracy wanted to know about virgin stories associated with the fountain and ended up finding a sports legend instead. Then comes the legend itself where Mike talks about a fish being stolen from the Showalter fountain in protest to the firing of basketball coach Bob Knight. A line that stands out is when Mike says “It was kind of like a riot thing” because there were in fact riots on campus so that detail gives the story some validity. It is not out of the question that a fish could go missing during a very real riot so, even if the story is just that, it is very plausible. Another intriguing aspect of the texture is that there are other stories associated with the stolen fish. The one I am most familiar with is that the fish was stolen while people were celebrating the 1987 basketball National Championship and that act cursed the team; IU has not won a championship since and will not until the fish is returned. There is a variation to this variation that states once IU wins a championship, the fish will magically reappear instead of needing to be returned pre-championship win. The fact that one event can foster so many different stories is part of what makes the study of folklore so fun and this is a perfect example of that phenomenon.
This item appeared in an interview for a folklore project. Tracy was conducting interviews about the Showalter fountain and this is one of the items that came from her work. The context to which the actual legend that Mike recalls is that Bob Knight was a very successful coach for the IU basketball team. He won multiple championships and had the team in contention every year, but he had a temper and was extremely hard on his players. A video of him choking a player surfaced and that along with many other allegations forced IU to fire the legendary coach. The student body, infatuated by the success Knight had brought them, emphatically protested his departure by organizing rallies, refusing to go to class, and causing lots of property damage. It is this last point that gives credibility to the story of the stolen fish. Knight went on to coach other places, but neither he or IU reached as much success apart as they had together and Knight held his grudge for decades. It was only last year when Knight finally returned to Assembly Hall where he was greeted by a packed house of cheering fans. This legend speaks to the bitterness of the time as it is that bitterness that makes the theft of a fish statue believable.
I think this story speaks to the trait of tradition. Though there are no yearly events or old customs seen in the story, the tradition of winning is at the heart of this tale. The fish was stolen because Bob Knight brought success and the student body was afraid they would not find that success again. The superstition about the fish putting a curse on the school came from that same fear of the lost tradition of winning. It is not the abundance of curses but the absence of competent coaching that is the cause of IU’s athletic woes, but the curse talk continues because the absence of the winning tradition feels supernatural. This story is about the destruction of tradition and the response to its demise. Who knows, maybe Tom Allen can bring that fish back one day.